Hundreds of thousands of people gained health insurance in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. In those states, hospitals were less likely to close.
Seven states saw a third or more of their hospitals punished under the federal health law's campaign against hospital-acquired conditions. Critics accuse some unscathed hospitals of gaming the system.
Prepare to joust over bills with hospitals, medical providers and insurers. You can win by being smart and assertive and acting before a test or treatment is administered.
Many surgeons prescribe strong pain medicine without knowing how much their patients actually need. A group of doctors says hospitals should be accountable for patients' long-term opioid use.
The island is a major center for drug and medical device manufacturing. After Hurricane Maria, those products, including small IV bags, are running short throughout the U.S.
Republican Gov. Paul LePage vetoed Medicaid expansion several times before, so advocates took the measure to the ballot box. Now the governor is placing financial conditions on moving ahead.
The city of Baltimore says it needs more money to distribute a lifesaving opioid overdose medication. And a recent study finds the cost of treating overdoses in U.S. hospital ICUs has risen sharply.
On extremely short notice, two hospitals had to evacuate all their patients as wildfires spread rapidly through Santa Rosa, Calif., last Sunday and Monday. One nurse on duty tells her story.
Smoking, drug abuse and diabetes are all modifiable risk factors for stroke. Yet a large study of patients hospitalized for stroke suggests the number of people with these risk factors is rising.
Doctors and emergency officials are still trying to figure out exactly how many people were shot in Las Vegas. The wide range of injuries and the sheer number of people injured are challenges.
MRI and CT scans done at hospitals for outpatients are often too expensive, says the firm, which insures patients in 14 states. The shift in policy won't apply to mammograms or X-rays, Anthem says.
The Rehabilitation Center at Hollywood Hills never lost power — but a transformer that drove its air conditioning unit was knocked out, leaving residents vulnerable to the heat and humidity.
Dr. Ruth Berggren spent six days struggling to keep patients alive in in New Orleans' Charity Hospital after Hurricane Katrina hit. She's now caring for evacuees from Hurricane Harvey.
"Law enforcement who come to the hospital for any reason involving patients will be required to check in to the front desk of the hospital," the chief nursing officer says.
In the past few days, Southeast Texas' catastrophic medical operations center has faced challenges like it has never seen before in keeping the health care system functioning.
These two older drugs, nitroprusside and isoproterenol, are frequently used in emergency and intensive care situations and have no direct alternatives, say cardiologists.
Cyberattacks and data breaches are common at health care facilities, and they can put patients' health at risk. Hospitals are behind the curve in beefing up defenses, industry analysts say.
The Affordable Care Act penalizes hospitals if patients are discharged and then readmitted with the same problems too often. That effort has improved care for patients, two researchers say.
Doctors, consumers and politicians say big federal cuts to Medicaid funding would jeopardize the treatment a lot of kids rely on. The state would either have to make up lost funding or cut benefits.
More than 70 rural U.S. hospitals have closed since 2010, and rural areas are likely to be short 45,000 doctors by 2020. It's one more example of the nation's division between haves and have-nots.
Founded in 1855, St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., grew from 250 patients to 8,000. A new exhibit at the National Building Museum explores the links between architecture and mental health.
The bacterium C. difficile causes one of the most common infections in hospitals and nursing homes. After climbing for decades, the rate of new infections is now falling.
Health care jobs now outnumber manufacturing jobs in Jefferson County, Ohio. Hospital administrators worry that Republican plans to cut Medicaid will lead to layoffs.
